Chuck

The morning we set out, our intention was to return the Lanthorn to the Elves. But we went a little off course, and came across a large fortified Keep.

Keldorn found it strange to see such a thing in the middle of nowhere.

We soon met a group of warriors, Helmites, tasked with guarding the site.

Odren was their leader. They were friendly, but needed our help.

The keep was meant to be sealed up tight, the prison for an unknown foe. They were charged by Helm with guarding access to the place. But they had reason to think the seals were failing? Could we enter and resecure the detention area?
Of coursed we agreed.

As we entered, Sarah said in a low voice, “there’s six of them, surely they didn’t need our help for this? Be careful everyone!”
Looks like the place doesn’t get a lot of visitors…
We finally met a caretaker of sorts who explained some things about what we needed to do.

Apparently there was a puzzle to solve to get to the lower levels.

The next level had several libraries, elemental libraries.

The libraries were each amazing.

They each had a key that led to us fighting and killing a minor demon to open the portal to the next floor.

Maybe the demon was a warning! The next “level” was a bunch of rooms connected by teleporting archways. It was very difficult to keep our bearing as we went.

And we had stepped right into the Blood War between Devils and Demons.

Numerous small fights, in almost every room.

The last room we encountered a …uh… friendly demon. I’ve heard in the vast infinity of the multi-verse, such things do occur. It certainly doesn’t happen here often!

The next couple levels were mostly notable for some brutally hard fights.

One particular fight was the sort Keldorn was made for!
Of course Sarah is made for any sort of fight.

The last level, the great seal before the prison, led to some of the toughest fights we’ve ever seen.

We’ve faced Drow before, but these were partnered with an assortment of demons and such. Just to keep things interesting.
These guys weren’t from around here, shame they wouldn’t talk about it.
This is amazing… and terrifying.

We faced Demogorgon himself. We had come to strongly suspect the watch knights knew exactly what they were watching. So the Helmites were liars, false. That didn’t make the Demon prince trustworthy!
But it did lead us to question our mission parameters. When we withdrew to confer amongst ourselves, we were met by a spectral servant of Helm himself, who confirmed we were being used in the name of their god. We were given a few options on how to proceed, now that we knew the full truth. We turned the false Helmites over to Demogoron, and resealed the Keep. Hopefully for a good long time.

The best thing about Watcher’s Keep, the view is tremendous.

*****

Funny thing, of the renders you see here, the couple at the end was the hardest to get. The AI seems to be offended by the idea of the *woman* being the one in armor! Hey I’m a pretty traditional sort of guy, but the AI makes me look modern…

This set seemed really tough to avoid repeats from the “Psyche and Diomedes” run I did a couple months back. But in the end I was pretty happy with it.

Now it should be pretty fast to the of SoA.

4 responses to “Chuck: Update32”

  1. Zeno Avatar

    I love how Odren gives off “used car salesman” vibes in that first pic. Maybe I’m projecting because I know how he turns out, but its really easy to read the fake friendliness into him there.

    The caretaker ghost looks awesome! What were the tags for him? I’ve never quite gotten that kind of “superimposed transluscent” look before.

    The demon with the cards looks great too. Could’ve stepped right out of Buffy.

    Were you not able to come up with a worthwhile render of Demogorgon? Not really sure how I would approach that one. That’s one funky-looking demon.

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    1. atcDave Avatar
      atcDave

      yeah I gave up on Mr D, no idea how to do *that*! Also, since we didn’t fight him, we never saw him anyway! I liked Aerie in the huge prison with the giant manacles.

      for the ghostly guy I threw everything at it, “ghostly apparition, transparent, spectral”. Then just older man in robes with long hair and beard. Came out well except for the elf ears! I was sort of expecting just blue transparent ghost, he looked so much better.

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      1. Zeno Avatar

        Yeah. That’s a fantastic look for him. I’ll try some of those terms next time I do a ghost.

        Trying to do the finale with the Wildlings atm. (Lost Valley is more of an adventure than a campaign). All sorts of things making that difficult. Probably struggling most with a giant mutant Bulette, but that hidden complex has some wild stuff.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. atcDave Avatar
        atcDave

        A “Giant, Mutant” Bulette! Oh my, that’s wild.

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